Keith Morris Podcast Interview with Jim Ruland and Todd Taylor

Forty Years of Group Sex: An interview with Keith Morris of Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, and OFF!

Images of the Masque, Black Flag, Chinatown, the Circle Jerks, the Olympic Auditorium, and The Decline of the Western Civilizationspring to mind when I think of the crucial moments in the early L.A punk and hardcore scene. The one person who links these diverse and disparate scenes is vocalist Keith Morris. You can’t tell the complete story of L.A. punk without him.

It’s been forty years since the Circle Jerks released its ground-breaking debut, Group Sex. To celebrate Keith, now sixty-four years old, will hit the road this spring for a lengthy global tour with Greg Hetson, Zander Schloss, and a yet-to-be-named drummer.

Keith visited Razorcake headquarters in Highland Park to talk about the upcoming Circle Jerks reunion, dealing with diabetes, delays on the latest OFF! record, and how a bad romance has fueled his creativity.

Interview by Jim Ruland and Todd Taylor

Introduction and photo by Jim Ruland

Songs: “Wasted” and “World up My Ass,” from Group Sex